The present invention relates to an apparatus having a pick-and-place head which picks up and places a surface mounting device (SMD) automatically, and especially to the construction of the pick-and-place head.
It is customary to fabricate a PC board by inserting the pins of an electronic component, such as an IC, into the holes formed on the PC board and then affixing the component on the PC board by soldering it on the PC board. However, it is necessary to drill holes on PC boards before fabrication, which induces a certain amount of workhours and needs some installations. Furthermore, the size of the PC board can not be made any smaller due to the presence of the interspaces between the holes formed on the PC board and the minimum limitation of diameter of the holes. A method of fabricating a PC board is here suggested, enabling the miniaturization of the size of the PC board by way of applying electronic components on the PC board directly, without inserting the pins of the components. The above components are called surface mounting devices (SMD) which are different from the traditional components in size and weight. An SMD is smaller and lighter than a traditional component, and the accuracy required during operation is higher than that of the traditional operation, so that an ordinary mechanical holding and centering mechanism can not meet the requirements, such as the positioning accuracy of picking up and placing the SMDs, during operation.